ramage



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER S. RAMAGE, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO JOSEPH O. GILOHRIST, OF SAME PLACE.

ELECTROLYSIIS' OF mow.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 570,956, dated November 10, 1896.

Application filed November 4,1895. Serial No. 567,928. (N specimens) To all whom, it may concern.-

Beit known that I, ALEXANDER S. RAMAGE, of Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electrolysis of Iron; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

My invention consists of a compound intended to be used in the electrolysis of iron in preparing such metal for tinning or galvanizing.

The object of the invention is to produce a solution or bath in which iron is to be electrolyzed for the purpose set forth which enables me to accomplish the result with a much lower voltage than heretofore, hence reducing the expense considerably.

In making my compound I dissolve green copperas (sulfate of iron) in the proportion of two hundred and seventy-eight pounds. To this solution I add one hundred and fortytwo pounds of salt-cake (sulfate of soda, dry) and one hundred and thirty-two pounds of sulfate of ammonia. The solution is then diluted with water to make a solution twenty per cent. strong, more or less.

The iron to be cleansed is inserted in this solution, preferably in the form of large sheets or blocks, thus exposing the most surface possible to the action of the electrolyte, and connected with the or positive pole of a battery or other source of electric energy and serves as an anode. The cathode may also be iron or any other suitable substance, also in the form of a sheet or sheets.

I am aware that a bath composed of the sulfate of iron and one other salt is old, but the baths heretofore used have not been practically successful, owing to the high voltage necessary to render them operative. I have found that by combining the sulfate of iron and both the above salts in the proportion named the internal resistance to the passage of the electric current is very greatly reduced and that iron may thus be cleansed with a low voltage, and consequently at small expense. The best results are obtained with my bath by an electric current of not more than five volts. Preferably only two to four volts are used, as the sulfate of sodium and sulfate of ammonia are not decomposed to an extent sufficient to interfere with the process by a current of this strength.

In the electrolysis of large quantities of iron the current of electricity is generated by a dynamo such as ordinarily used for electrplating and which supplies a current of from one to three thousand amperes. Preferably a current of two thousand amperes at the above-stated pressure of from two to four volts is used.

WVhat I claim as my invention is- In a compound for use in eleetrolyzing iron the following elements in substantially the proportions set forth: sulfate of iron, two hundred and seventy-eight pounds; sulfate of soda, one hundred and forty-two pounds; sulfate of ammonia, one hundred and thirtytwo pounds, and the whole diluted with water to form a solution substantially twenty per cent. strong.

In testimony whereof I sign this specification, in the presence of two witnesses, this th day of September, 1895.

ALEXANDER S. RAMAGE.

lVitnesses:

ELLA E. TILDEN, L. WARD HOOVER. 

